A novelist, playwright, and author of several collections of short stories, Edna O'Brien is one of the most important Irish women writers of her generation. Prolific and provocative, she occupies a very significant place in the Irish feminist imagination. Throughout her impressive oeuvre, she returns to a number of key themes, showing a particular commitment to rendering the lives of Irish women, coming of age in Ireland in the 1950s and 60s, female sexuality and desire, exile and escape, and the trauma of Irish history. Her early work, the highly acclaimed and controversial
The Country Girls Trilogy–
The Country Girls(1960),
The Lonely Girls(1962), and
Girls in their Married Bliss(1964) – was banned in Ireland because of its sexual content. A concern with sexuality and with exile…
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Citation: McWilliams, Ellen. "Edna O'Brien". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 30 August 2007 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=3367, accessed 09 December 2024.]